Hi guys,
here is one really strange issue.I have desktop PC with Netgear PCI WG311v3 wifi card with Marvel chipset.On Mandriva 2007.0(default kernel) I had no problems with my card.I used ndiswrapper and everything goes smooth and nice,no trouble at all.
Now,this is the weird part:I switch to newer Mandriva 2008.0.First I tried upgrade,but I had some other problems too and finally decided to format and make clean install.Ok,done.Then the first thing was to set up my wifi card.I installed ndiswrapper and I connect to my router (Netgear WGR614).For my bad surprise I had unstable connection(no matter with or without encryption) and from time to time I need to reset my wlan0 by NetApplet(service network restart doesn't help).Sometime even network crash cause entire system crashing.
So,the question is:
What are the differences in wifi cards handling in 2007 and 2008?Notice that I have the same hardware,my PC never changed its position,the router is in same room, and finally signal strength in 2007.0 was 100%,here(2008.0) is 50-60%.I can point the kernel.Reason:I did compile new kernels right before switching to 2008.0.Versions 2.6.21 and 2.6.22.Both has problems handling my card.Seems that kernel 2.6.17 was better than 2.6.22 in that part.Is it true?

Any ideas how I can fix my network?

P.S.I am not sure if this is for this section or for wireless networking,but because I believe is considered more as Mandriva 2008.0 issue I post it here.

Did you use ndiswrapper again? If you did, see if Mandriva now knows how to set up your card. Each new version includes additional hardware support. I find that letting Mandriva do the heavy lifting when possible solves more problems than trying to do things myself. YMMV

HTH,

Thank you for your reply!
I already asked them,they offered to switch to earlier version of ndiswrapper.So,I am looking for ndiswrapper-1.45.rpm.I don't want to download .tar.gz because I will need to compile it.Also I will need to install kernel source and finally there is not guarantee it will work better.
Some time ago I complied kernel 2.6.21 and 2.6.22 for myself,both wasn't working correctly with ndiswrapper(1.45 or 1.47),no matter if I use default config for the kernels or anything else.There is something in interworking with this kernel and ndiswrapper,I don't know what,everything looks clear,but just they don't stick correctly.

I have a similar prob. I do not know if my comments will help, but here goes. I have a computer with multiple distro's installed. All have a similar base and can handle my broadcom card. Mandriva 2007 is absolutely rock solid. 2008 though is a different matter as it is based on Ubuntu, and I have failed so far to get a Ubuntu based system, to use the card effectively. Maybe a Ubuntu how to will fix it for you!